SUMMARY: After eighty years, destiny still isn't finished with them yet.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing of THE MUMMY/THE MUMMY RETURNS
RATING: T+
PAIRING: Imhotep/Anck-Su-Namun
REVERSAL OF FATE:
Lyla Carnahan was a party girl when she wasn't traveling the world hunting for lost treasure. She loved to socialize with anyone if they seemed fun enough to her. It was nearly noon when she returned to the brownstone she shared with her favorite cousin, Sun. Halfway down the street she noticed a black, four door sedan with men inside, all garbed in red. The sight of them made her already pounding head ache more. She put on a drunken act and stumbled down the rest of the street, making a grand show of tripping up the stone steps. While she made it look like she could possibly throw up, she bent over and picked up a parcel box. Then she pushed the doorbell and kept pushing it.
"Let me in…!" Lyla shouted, pressing the buzzer in time with her words. She switched to short buzzes and then one long one before going back to the short ones. This behavior wasn't uncommon to their neighbors. Lyla stupidly forgot her keys when they left yesterday morning. Finally, through the glass, she saw the door open. She could get out of yesterday's clothes and into a hot shower.
LIVING ROOM:
"Lyla," Sun stressed her cousin's name, "this is Tom Hawass." She hoped that Lyla would break her streak of annoying nicknames and actually use his name.
"Oh," Lyla said, nodding at the man, realizing she still carried the box, "this was on the front stoop for you." Out of curiosity, she looked at the return address. "It's from Ben."
Sun crossed her arms and scoffed. "Is it ticking?" The last time she had spoken to Benjamin, she had promised to cut his heart out and feed it to him. Of course, that was after she castrated him and boiled his balls to feed to her dogs. Sun was very colorful with her threats she leveled against her cousin.
"That's not fair," Lyla said, scowling.
"Who's Ben?" Tom asked as he stood next to Sun. Her good mood vanished the moment that name was spoken.
"He's Lyla's two-timing, double dealing, traitorous brother," Sun said sharply. "And that's me being kind about his character," she added looking at her cousin.
Lyla didn't reply or try to defend her brother to Sun. The rift between the two was too great, it might never be mended. So, instead, she read the address from where the box was sent. "This was post marked from Cairo, a week ago, and it was sent from Sarah's address."
"What?! Sarah doesn't have a place in Egypt," Sun stated. The last time she had spoken to her parent's – admittedly it was a while ago – they had talked about keeping Sarah out of Egypt. This, of course, was during one of her manic episodes, so Sun had cut the call short to let her parents deal with their eldest daughter.
"Apparently, she does now," Lyla informed. "And something else you're not going to like. I saw Paul at Journey's trolling for a date. I caught him before he could get his latest 'victim' and got the low down on his estranged wife. So, this is straight from the lecherous horse's mouth. Sarah got Auntie Leah to give her the apartment she had in Cairo."
"Shit…" Sun sighed heavily. "With Paul here in New York, that means Sarah's off her meds and no one is managing her. What about my spineless brother, Avery?" she asked Lyla. Sarah on her own was a recipe for disaster, and if she was on the loose in Egypt, that would be even worse.
Tom got up from the couch and went to Sun. Silently he asked, "Have I stepped into the middle of an ongoing argument?"
Sun looked up into his whiskey colored eyes and replied gently, "No, you've wandered into the middle of some O'Connell family crazy with my oldest sister, Sarah, as the main attraction." Before he had a chance to ask anything more, she added, "She's a paranoid schizophrenic with violent tendencies."
"Violent is a mild understatement," Lyla snapped. "She tried to strangle you when you were eighteen."
"Lyla!" Sun snapped.
"Your own sister tried to kill you?" Tom asked, shock radiating throughout his body. Every fiber of hos being screamed for him to act, to do something to make sure she was never harmed again.
"She was in the middle of a psychotic break," Sun answered. "She was convinced I was her enemy." That night had been the scariest night of her life. If her father had been just a few minutes later, she could have very well been dead.
"That doesn't excuse the way she treated you when we were children," Lyla snapped. She hated Sarah with the same intensity that Sarah hated Sun.
"And that was why I was homeschooled and traveled with Grandpa Alex," Sun stated. That was just another thing Sarah hated her for. Grandpa Alex showered her with love and attention, his time, and trips all over the world. Sarah was made to feel as if she was left out of everything. From Sun's point of view, that wasn't true. Sarah had most of their parent's time and attention, which now, thinking back on it, it was probably because they knew she was troubled.
Lyla had nothing smart to say to that. So, instead, she pried open the flap of the box to see what was inside. Inside were pictures of dig sites around Luxor, a map, and various notes about Seti the I and his use of false tombs. Lyla flipped back to the map, but the hieratic writing on it was difficult for her as her ancient Egyptian was rusty.
Tom could see there was more to the story of Sun's family, but he wasn't going to ask until he and Sun were alone. "Should I get dressed and go?"
"No," Sun said with a short shake of her head. There was still the matter of the Red Guard outside. All of it felt like a long-term plan finally being carried out and it had Sarah's fingerprints all over it. "Even through all of this, I would hope you'd want to stay."
"I do, and I can't explain why," Tom answered her. The thought of walking out that door twisted his guts up into knots. He brought his hand up, cupping the side of her neck while his thumb rubbed back and forth over her pulse.
"You and hotty professor should see this," Lyla pipped up. She pulled surveillance pictures out of the box. There at least twenty photos of Sun and Tom. Lyla could tell that they were from before the two had had locked eyes with each other in the classroom.
Sun crossed the room, peering over her cousin's shoulder and then took the top picture. "This was two weeks ago when we were out to dinner. Why would Ben send this to me?" she asked.
"Making amends, maybe?" Lyla suggested.
"He's got a long road for that one." Sun crossed her arms, going quiet. She was trying to piece things together from the moment she and Tom met. After seeing him, it was the first time she noticed the Red Guard following her. She had a sickening feeling that Sarah was somehow involved with them now. When Tom reached for the photo's in her hand, she gave them to him without saying anything.
Tom sifted through the pictures of him walking the streets of Paris two weeks ago. He had gone home to visit his mother. There were photos of him having coffee in a café while reading the morning paper, of him sitting in a park reading a book. There were even shots of him in his parents' house. "Why are there pictures of me?" he asked feeling as if his privacy had been invaded on a very personal level.
Sun placed her hand flat on his chest, catching his gaze. "I don't know, but I plan to find out," she stated heatedly. It was fine for her when Sarah targeted her with her crazy. Sun could handle it. She had been ever since she was a kid. But to draw and innocent man into her delusion… that was crossing a line in Sun's book. She wasn't going to let this stand.
"You can't stay in New York," Lyla pointed out. While Sun and Tom were staring at each other she had taken the liberty and unfolded the map Ben had sent along. It made her wonder if he stole all this stuff from Sarah. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Her brother had even lower morals than she did.
"Why not?" Tom asked.
"Sarah is drawing me into one of her delusions, and by extension you as well," Sun answered. "So, to take back a modicum amount of power, we make our move when we're good and ready. That means taking a step to the side and going somewhere out of her sphere of control. Don't worry, I won't let her hurt you."
Tom smiled and asked, "Shouldn't I be saying that to you?"
"It's the 21st century. Women get to be knights in shining armor now," Sun joked.
"I'm calling Ben," Lyla stated, her phone already in hand.
"No, you're not," Sun said turning on her cousin. "We can do this without him."
"Can we?" Lyla asked. "If you want dirty, double-dealing, underhanded tricks, then we need my brother. He's a sneaky son of a bitch, and he hates Sarah too."
Sun wanted to argue, but she didn't have the luxury, not now that Sarah was drawing Tom into things. She would need every advantage she could get, and whether she liked it or not, Ben was an advantage. "Fine, tell him to bring my bag."
"You got it," Lyla said, furiously typing away. The text would go straight to her brother's encrypted cell phone.
Sun wrapped her robe around herself and dropped down to the suede sofa. He didn't let her get too far away. Sitting down next to her, he took her hand in between both of his, motioning for her to rest her head on his shoulder. She did and sighed gratefully. Touching him somehow calmed her completely. "Feel like following me down the rabbit hole a little while longer?"
Tom placed a gentle kiss to the top of her head and replied, "I would follow you to the Underworld and back, I think."
"How about to Paris?" Sun asked in a gentle tone. "I have a house barge docked on the river near Notre Dame." It would give her time to do research of her own. Sarah had always cast herself in the role of Nefertiri. Sun was never certain to which role her sister had consigned her to that brought with it so much hate. She needed time to figure this out before she confronted Sarah.
"Perfect," Tom replied, giving her another light kiss.
"Now we have that taken care of, what about our friends outside?" Lyla asked, jerking her thumb towards the window. Sun and her man looked at her. "We could call the police, claim their casing our neighbors house while they are away on vacation." She knew how to cause a good distraction when it was called for. Pulling out her phone, she saw she had a new message and it was from Ben. In it, he said he was in London picking up a few things from the family manor house. At one time, Lyla, Ben, Sun, Avery, and Sarah had lived under the same roof with their parents and Alex O'Connell.
"You deal with them," Sun said, getting up, "and we'll get dressed while I deal with the flight details…"
"I need a flight to London. Just heard from Ben, and he's at the house. He said he would wait for me to get there." Lyla made sure to arrange for cars to take them to the airport. One for her and then one for them so Sun could take her man wherever he needed to go to get whatever stuff he had.
"While you're at the house, get the journals from my room; the ones Grandpa Alex left me," Sun said, trying to think if there was anything else she needed. If she thought of anything else, she could always text Lyla later.
"Okay, I'll make a list," Lyla replied half to herself and half to Sun. They were so many things to take care of before they left the house. First, she had to get rid of the Red Guard watching them.
Sun nodded, but her cousin was already engrossed in spinning her tale for the cops. It was a thing of beauty to witness Lyla blowing something way out of proportion. Instead of standing around watching, she took Tom's hand, tugging him back towards the steps. They were silent the entire way up to the third floor. The only thing she focused on was the warm weight of his hand in hers and the way his fingers were laced with hers.
When she shut the bedroom door, Tom asked, "Why do you hate your cousin Ben so much?" He walked over to the bed and sat on the edge, his heels braced on the frame. She took a moment to just stare at him. He could see she was debating what she should tell him and what she should keep to herself. So, he waited.
Sun shook her head and decided to tell him the truth. "Ben betrayed me. We were working a salvage job off the coast of China. I was searching for a legendary shipwreck that contained the tomb of a lost Chinese empress, but what I found was something else. It was a cache of old weapon that were worth a lot of money. Before I got the chance to examine it, Ben sold the wreckage to Chinese gangsters, and I was taken captive for three months…"
The next part was something Sun hadn't even told Lyla. "Ben was getting ready to leave when he heard that two of the men were planning to execute both of us. So, my cousin double crossed them, and killed them first. Then he set me free." All through her answer, she had closed the distance between them, putting herself between his parted knees with her hands on his shoulders. Being touched by him made it easier for her to talk about what happened.
"He betrayed you and then saved you?" Tom asked. "Why would he do that?" Gently, his hand moved up and down her sides, comforting her. He was walking into a family mess and he knew it, but he was doing so with his eyes wide open. Sun was worth braving a family intent on going to war with each other.
"Ben cares about money more than he cares about scruples or family loyalty," Sun answered quickly. She was suspicious about his motives to help her, even if he did hate her older sister. There had to be some angle he was working that she didn't see yet.
Because she needed it, Tom stood up, his lips seeking hers. She needed something to ground her and he would let that be him, his touch, his kiss, and his body. Her arms draped over his shoulders and his fingers dug into her sides. The kiss was full of promised passion. It was so powerful that they broke apart gasping. "I don't think we'll get used to that."
Sun giggled lightly and responded, "Neither do I." He had this way of knowing what she needed and what she had needed after talking about Ben was to feel him in tight against her. His lips touched her forehead while she closed her eyes, savoring this moment. They couldn't stay like this for too much longer. There would be a narrow window for them to take advantage of, so they could get out of the country.
"We should get dressed," Tom said softly. It was as if he'd read her mind. They parted slowly, neither ready to lose the feel of the others skin. When their finger tips were the only part of them touching, they shared another small smile, and then broke the connection of their skin. He found his clothes from the previous day where he'd left them. Picking them up, he went into the bathroom to change. All the while he was thinking about Sun.
Sun changed quickly; black leggings, knee high black boots, and a white button up shirt. She finger combed her fall of long black hair back into a pony tail before she grabbed her large duffle back. In it, she threw in pants, boots, bra's, underwear, and various pairs of jeans. Pulling the zipper closed, she tossed the bag out letting it land on the floor. A manly yelp of surprise immediately followed the thud of her duffle. Poking her head out of the closet, she saw Tom giving the evil eye to the thing that had nearly assaulted him. "Sorry," she said with a small shrug.
"I'm fine," Tom replied and then buttoned the last button of his shirt. He bent over to pick up her bag as it was covering his shoes. Slipping into the comfortable loafers, he settled the strap of her suitcase on his shoulder and then headed out of the room. He'd have to call Andrew and let him know that he had to leave suddenly. On the stairs, headed down, Tom encountered Lyla. She was looking quite pleased with herself. "The cops believed you, I take it," he said.
"I can be convincing when I need to be," Lyla replied with a shrug, a wink, and a smile. "Oh, our cars will be here in about an hour and a half. So, go stand by the window and enjoy the show." With that, she jogged the rest of the way up to her room. She needed a shower, badly.
Down in the living room, Tom did as Lyla suggested. He went to the window, peering down at the street just in time to see two cop cruisers pull up from opposite directions to box in a sedan. The driver put his hands out the window to show he had no weapons and one patrolman approached.
"Jesse, tell me you have two seats available on tonight's red eye flight to Paris."
Tom turned from the drama unfolding outside the window to look at Sun walking down the steps, all long legged grace and poise. It was as if he could almost see her as someone else; a painted goddess in black lines and gold paint, adorned in jewelry and gold chains. This unpainted version before him was better. He walked towards her, pulled by some metaphysical tether between them.
Sun forced herself not to be distracted by Tom in front of her, looking at her as if she were the most beautiful woman in the world to him. She had to concentrate on Jesse on the other end of her call. Her contact at the airport was currently checking all available flights to Paris, not just the red eye. She would like to take the quickest flight possible, but if she had to, she would take a normal plane. Unfortunately, she was losing the battle. She was falling into his eyes and losing all sense of time.
"Sun, are you listening to me? Hello? Hello? If you can hear this, I have you and your traveling companion booked on the evening flight to Paris. Lyla has a seat in first class for a flight to London leaving at three. Come to the desk, your tickets will be waiting."
The call ended.
Sun shoved her phone into her back pocket while she continued to hold Tom's gaze. There was no need to advert her eyes, to pretend she wasn't staring at him. He held out his hand to her and she didn't hesitate to go to him. The moment her palm touched his, she shuddered. The sensations that flew through her felt too good, she never wanted it to stop. This was worth fighting for. He was worth going to war with her sister.
PARIS:
Tom climbed out of the taxi that had brought them from the airport to a deserted spot along the Seine. It was nearly eight in the morning, foggy, and with few people jogging. The air around them felt like it could burst open any minute and flood the city with rain. He moved to the trunk of the cab, pushing the lid up to retrieve their luggage; Sun's leather duffle, his briefcase, and suitcase. He took a deep breath, breathing in the fine Parisian air reaffirming that he was home. He spent half his life in this city, cultivating his love of the ancient world. Part of him felt sorrow, however, to be back here with trouble nipping at his heels.
Sun paid the driver and tipped him extra to forget that he'd ever seen them in the backseat of his car. She got out to see Tom laden down with their luggage. Immediately, she reached for the strap of her bag, but he took a step back, giving her a wink. So, he wanted to be chivalrous. Sun smiled and led the way to where her barge was docked. Camille was already on deck, securing the lines, making the knots tight. When she wasn't staying in Paris, she let Camille use her barge free of rent, so she had somewhere to stay while she was at University. Luckily, the girl was headed home Lyon for Spring break, and was finished packing. "Bonjour, Camille!" Sun called out, waving.
"Bonjour, Madam Sun!" Camille shouted her greeting, waving in return. "I did not think to see you until this afternoon," she said as she checked the last knot. It was strong and would weather the potential storm that was supposed to hit.
"We took an earlier flight," Sun said with a slight shrug and a soft smile.
"Oh, I see," Camille giggled, winking at her generously understanding landlord.
"You keep those dirty thoughts to yourself, missy," Sun said in a joking manner. Camille batted her eyelashes and appeared contrite – for the moment. She just shook her head, letting her amusement show. "At least you'll be home in time for lunch. I'm sure mother will be thrilled."
"If she's not in the middle of a disagreement with husband number three," Camille grumbled.
"You call me if you need to come back to Paris. I'll put you up in a nice flat, close to campus should you want to study while on break," Sun offered, stepping over the rope line and on to the deck of her barge.
"You don't have to do that," Camille said, waving off Sun's offer. "I'll deal. If things get too out of hand, I will take the skillet to him." She laughed, but she was serious at the same time. Camille stepped on to the stone bank and then hurried off.
"She's a strange one," Tom commented lightly, handing Sun her duffle. She took it, tossing it over by the skylight and then held out her hands for his bags as well. He didn't think twice about it. With his hands free, he made his way carefully on to the deck of the barge. The entire ride from the airport was made in silence. He could feel that Sun had come to a few conclusions on the flight but was reluctant to share them given the crowded plane.
Sun picked up her bag and motioned for him to follow. Inside, she moved down into the living area towards the bow, dropping her duffle by the small dining table. She had had seven hours to think about the situation she found herself in. While in flight from New York to Paris, she started to recall the stories Grandpa Alex had told her about High Priest Imhotep and his lover Anck-Su-Namun. When he told her about them, he told her about their early life, about meeting, and falling in love. After her grandpa died, some of the things he willed to her were his journals, specifically the ones about the two lovers. Inside the first volume was a cryptic note that he left her. "Theirs is a story told through the eyes of a poisoned Princess," Sun spoke the words she knew by heart.
"What?" Tom asked.
Sun looked at him and said, "I might know who my sister believes us to be. It didn't make sense until I had time to think about it. She thinks she's Nefertiri, and the villains in that tale were Imhotep and his lover, Anck-Su-Namun…."
Tom nodded. "I know this story…" he said softly. It didn't end too well for them after murdering the Pharaoh. Thinking about them made him feel sad, and that never made sense to him, at least not until this moment. He understood his kinship to Imhotep and the longing to love the one woman he knew he belonged with.
"My grandpa used to tell me tales about them, but he never made them out to be monsters," Sun said, dropping down to the couch with a sigh. "The stories he told me were happy ones. It was as if he wanted me to have a positive association with them. It was almost as if he knew something about me…"
To keep her from falling into sadness, Tom asked, "Will you tell me the stories he told you?" He came over and sat next to her, where he took a decorative pillow and placed it over his lap. Gently, he patted it, hoping she was stretch out and rest. It had been a long flight and he suspected she hadn't slept at all.
Sun moaned tiredly, shifting to curl on her side with her head resting on the pillow in his lap. Immediately, his hand touched her head, stroking her hair in a soothing way. So, she started the story the way her grandpa had. "Imhotep had never before laid eyes upon a woman such as her. The moment their eyes touched, they knew they were destined to be together. Their souls called out to be united as one…"
Tom listened to her speak, her voice drifting off like a memory, and his eyes were closing. Her words coalesced in his mind, forming a movie that he felt he'd already lived once before. He could see her, gleaming in gold paint with dead eyes. Then they caught sight of each other, and a spark ignited inside them. She had been a gift to the Pharaoh, given with the express purpose of being used in whatever way the God-King saw fit. He remembered feeling sickened by it. A beautiful woman should never be made a plaything.
"Time and circumstances kept them apart. She, mistress to the Pharaoh. He, the High Priest. Then a time came where they could no longer deny what was growing between them. They found moments to be together; stolen, cherished seconds. A brush of the hand here, a long lingering glance there, or a secret kiss in the dead of night while the rest of the world slept."
Tom drifted further into the sea of memories, falling completely into a dark scene. He could feel the lick of heat against his skin as he concealed himself in the shadows, waiting. Then he heard the clink of thin gold chains and knew it was her. Stepping out into the light, he let her see him, and the smile that curved her lips traveled all the way up to her eyes. Tonight, she wore a simple white cotton wrap around her hips and chest. Seti was away and there was no need for her to be painted. Immediately, he went to her, covering the distance between them quickly, and greeting her in the way that made them feel loved. And then he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in against his body, so that his lips could take hers.
"All too soon, their love grew too great. Stolen touches, lingering glances, and secret meetings were no longer enough. They needed more. They would risk all just to be in love, to be free and happy…."
Tom's memories changed. It was night, but this time she was painted and readied for Pharaoh. His heart sank, but still he went to her. Placing his hand upon her shoulder, he smudged her freshly painted black lines. Whether he did it in purpose, he didn't know. All he knew was that he needed the taste of her on his tongue, the feel of her lips branded upon his own. Then Seti returned. He didn't make the choice to kill the Pharaoh even though he drew the golden sword he carried. The jarring motion of driving the blade through the King made his eyes pop open and his chest heave with the effort to breathe normally.
Sun sat up, tossed the pillow aside, and straddled his lap with her hands cupping his face, trying to get his eyes to lock with hers. "You're here with me. You're right here," she said over and over again. Leaning in, she pressed her forehead to his, trying to get him to breath with her, to slow down, and feel that she was with him. While she had been speaking, her mind had wandered down a path of lost memories. She had felt the heat of the sun, the hard stone of the palace floor beneath her feet, and the suffocating way the paint choked her skin.
"I've never felt anything like this before, the power of those memories…" Tom breathed in through his nose, exhaling through his mouth. The wave of memory crashed through him with such force that he hadn't been prepared for it. He could remember days spent in idle conversation, other days spent doing nothing but staring at each other from across a courtyard. Then there were days spent longing for a glimpse of one another. It was all coursing through him, churning up feelings for the woman holding him, for the love he lost three thousand years ago. "We never set out to kill him…"
"No, we didn't," Sun replied, emotion choking her voice. "We only wanted to be free." Even as she caressed his face, she could feel the weight of the dagger in her hand, her fingers curling around it, and the impact of her driving it into Pharaoh's back. "We're not them," she said quickly, heatedly. She wanted him to believe it, needed him to believe it, because then she could as well. It was hard not to look at him and see the face of the man from three thousand years ago. And she was falling in love with him all over again.
Tom sat up, wrapping his arms around her waist, holding her, letting her body anchor him in the present while his mind was getting lost in the past. He tried to cling to anything that would stop the flood of memories for a while. He wasn't ready for them and he could tell, neither was she. "Distract me with something," Tom pleaded, but even as he begged, his mind latched on to what she had said before beginning her story. "Theirs is a story told through the eyes of a poisoned Princess," he repeated those words back to her. "What does that mean?"
Sun was momentarily taken aback. She hadn't been prepared for him to switch gears like that and it took her a minute to catch up. "Uhh… I… don't know…" she stammered. Taking a moment, she took a calming breath and closed her eyes. This stream of memories had stripped her of her steel-like resolve. She had faced harder things than remembering a past life. But that like was determined to bring her to her knees, bend her to its will, and make her endure the pain. Sun would fight tooth and nail, refusing to be broken by the past. She wouldn't make the same mistakes Anck-Su-Namun made.
"Nefertiri didn't die from poisoning," Tom stated. "Your grandfather must have meant it in another context. But what?"
"Poisoned could refer to her hatred for them. They did kill her father," Sun reminded him. She would do anything she could to separate who they were now from the two who were forced into a life of secrecy and a love that had no room to grow in the light of day.
"Through her eyes…" Tom muttered to himself a few times. "Her eyes… She bore witness to the love they had for each other behind her father's back."
Sun was following his train of thought. "So, by that logic, 'poisoned' could mean jealous. She was jealous of them. But why? Nefertiri was a Princess. She wanted for nothing, including her father's time and his love." Sun caressed his cheeks with her thumbs, idly, as if she'd done it a million times. Then it occurred to her. "She was jealous of us, of the love we had."
"I think so," Tom said in agreement. Their assumption made him wade back into the pool of memories that had calmed. He was taking a risk, but the answer was in their memories, he knew it. "It was the triumph parade. Seti had returned victorious is Kadesh, taking the city from the Hittites…."
"Nefertiri was standing at the top of the palace steps, waiting to greet her father upon his return. Nobles and commoners alike lined the streets, celebrating the great victory. It was the first time you and I were standing next to each other in public…" Sun trailed off, feeling a chill run up and down her spine.
"The wind had risen up, billowing the robes I wore, hiding the fact that I had taken your hand. We were lamenting our time together had come to an end after months of peace while he was gone," Tom spoke, taking her hand as he remembered doing that day, three thousand years ago. He didn't know what had possessed him to look at the Princess, but when he did, he saw Nefertiri's eyes taking in the sight of their joined hands. The Princess looked at him then, and they stared at each other for long minutes. Fanfare finally diverted their attention away from each other and back to the procession drawing closer to the palace. She knew and that meant it was only a matter of time before she told her father.
"You held my hand so tightly, I thought you might break all my bones," Sun said in a rush, this time her grip tightening on him. She was fighting back tears of despair that she shouldn't be feeling. There was no one to object to them being together. Her left arm draped across the back of his shoulders as her lips took his in a heated kiss that grounded her soul in the present. It helped her to know that she was Sun O'Connell.
Tom slid to the edge of the couch. One hand still holding hers and his other arm wrapped across her back. He stood up, her legs locked around him as he carried her to the raised platform bed behind them. Gently, he knelt on the mattress, letting her fall back against the golden satin of the sheets. Tom braced his hands on either side of her waist, holding himself above her, getting ready to kiss her again, when her hand on his chest stopped him. "What?" he asked in a gasp.
Sun answered him honestly, "I don't want sex… yet." She knew the union of their bodies would be intoxicating, but she wanted to take the time to just be with him. When they made love to each other, she wanted it to be in Egypt, in the sight of the gods who had denied them in their first life. She wanted them to see that they were free. That they were in love.
"Then what should I do?" Tom asked lightly.
"Touch me," Sun replied, bringing her hands up to rest in on shoulders.
Tom grinned a wicked grin. He rose up to his knees, so that his hands could busy themselves with the buttons of her shirt. Under his hands, he could feel the muscles of her stomach quivering. Parting the fabric, exposing her abdomen, he leaned down and placed a light, lingering kiss to her skin. He stayed there longer than he knew he should have, but part of him remembered the angry wound that had stolen her life. Silently, he prayed never to witness her death… again.
Sun felt his lips moving, she felt the words he spoke against her body. He was offering up a prayer to the great god, Osiris. She cupped his face and promised, "Hey, we won't make their mistakes." In her heart she wanted to believe what she was saying. Her mind was a different matter. She was being forced into a confrontation that might just claim a life as recompence for past wrongs. To chase away that specter looming over them, she pulled him up until she could kiss him, breathing new life into his body, and warmth into his heart.
MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT:
Tom woke in bed, alone. The flight had wiped them out as had the flood of memories that coursed through them. He was curled on his side, the sheets down around his hips, and a large square pillow was taking the place where Sun had been. In the low light, he saw her, she was pacing and talking on her cell phone. He propped himself up on his side and watched her in case she needed him. From her body language he was able to see that she was agitated by the person on the other side of the call. When she turned to pace back, her eyes caught his and he nodded to let her know that he was here should she need him.
"I understand," Sun said and then disconnected the call. She dropped her phone on to the table by his briefcase before heading for the door; she needed air. Up on deck, she breathed in the chilly night air, trying to fill her lungs with as much as she could in the hopes it would calm her rising temper. She went over to the wheel house and slammed her fist into the unrelenting wood. Hurting herself wouldn't help the situation, so she moved towards the bow and stared at Notre Dame. And then warmth surrounded her, as well as Tom's strong arms. He cocooned them within a blanket.
"Would you like to talk about it?" Tom asked, holding her shivering form against his body. She turned in his arms, tucking her head under his chin, and remained silent. He understood she was processing whatever news she was given. So, he held her and waited until she was ready.
"It was my father on the phone," Sun muttered as she turned her face, resting her cheek on his bare chest. "He wanted to tell me that Sarah had vanished and that I should take extra precautions until he's tracked her down. I didn't tell him about the package Ben sent me with the photos."
"Why not?" Tom asked. "Certainly your father can help you."
"He's under enough stress as it is," Sun replied. Her father, Richard, gave up most of his free time to keep track of his eldest daughter. It put strain on the rest of the family. Except for Avery. The only son of Laura and Richard O'Connell spent his time winding his sister up, feeding her delusions that Sun was their enemy. The sad part of it was, Sun didn't hate Sarah or Avery. Most days, she pitied them.
"And that means we only have your cousins, Lyla and Ben, to rely on," Tom commented. Even with the odds stacked against them, he could feel that they were going to prevail. They stood together and there was nothing they couldn't do.
TO BE CONTINUED….